Halcyon Theft
by M0rdr3d
Summary: An AU fic about the consequences of Raven's decision to take Yang with her when she left Taiyang.
1. Chapter 1

A dark, purple haze cast its hue on everything in sight.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

Ruby crept up the stairs, each step breaking the dead silence of night with a loud creak. The air itself felt malevolent, as if the entire house wanted its occupants dead. The second floor was so close, but seemed to be getting further away with each step.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

She reached the familiar hallway, leading to both her room and her parents' room. No, as of recently, her parent's room. Her tiny legs drove her to her door, but as she looked inside, she knew it was too large to for her to sleep there alone. Not tonight. Not after everything that had happened.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick tock.

A tear formed in the corner of her eye. Whether it was from terror or sorrow, she had no idea. After all, one could hardly expect a four year old girl to be able to process emotions that an adult would have a hard time dealing with. Ruby closed her door gently and trudged across the hallway into her dad's room. She heard a faint, persistent metal shriek that grew louder and louder as she approached the door.

Tick tock, tick tock, tick…

The sound of shattered glass murdered the clock.

The door opened slowly. Ruby gazed inside, even though some part of her knew she shouldn't have looked. The fan spun lazily, the extra weight on one of the blades causing the entire assembly to slow down with each rotation. Ruby's mouth opened wide, and she felt pain as her knees buckled and smashed against the floor. Beneath her, she could hear someone smashing down the door.

"Taiyang! What the hell do you think you're doing! You have a daughter!"

The sound of desperate footsteps hammering up the stairs echoed through the house. Ruby's furious uncle bounded through the hallway, proving once and for all that crows bring nothing but bad luck. He looked at his brother-in-law, horrified, his expression only growing darker as his eyes fell to stare at the trail of tears falling down Ruby's face.

"...Uncle Qrow? Why?" Ruby sobbed, reaching for her uncle.

Qrow looked deep in Ruby's eyes. The room started to dissolve, the purple background eating the walls and furniture.

"Why, Ruby? It's simple." Qrow's red eyes glowed brighter and brighter with each word, until light enveloped the entire room. Crimson tears trickled down his face. "Your father died because you weren't enough for him."

Ruby's eyes slowly opened. A familiar buzzing filled her head, and she looked up at the ceiling for a solid minute, trying to remember where she was. If the lumpy couch she was sprawled across was anything to go by, she'd managed to stagger back to Qrow's house after all. She staggered over to the sink and grabbed a dirty glass off of the countertop, spinning the blue tap and placing the cup underneath the nozzle. The glass overflowed, but Ruby let the water run a little longer, enjoying the cold sensation on her hands. Shakily, she brought the water up to her mouth, cursing as some spilled out of her mouth and onto her shirt. After stumbling into the bathroom and emptying her stomach, she struggled to recall the events of the previous night.

There was that bottle of whiskey that Qrow had tried to hide in the basement, the brown paper bag, the abandoned alleyway… she shrugged, realizing quickly that she didn't care enough to bother thinking harder, not that the hornets flying around in her head would have let her. Her thoughts were cut short by the sound of the front door being slammed shut.

"Kid! If you're drunk again, I swear to god..." Qrow wasn't in a very good mood. It only worsened when he looked down and saw the half-empty whiskey bottle lying on the floor. "Hey! I was saving that for after the meeting with Ozpin and Glynda!"

"Well, technically I'm not"- Ruby's voice was stopped by a bout of dry heaving -"drunk."

"Well… I mean… Dammit, Rubes, you're starting to turn into me."

"Aw, come on, I look up to you!"

"Why exactly did you choose a thirty-nine year old alcoholic as your role model?"

Ruby's face darkened and she looked down. "Who else was I going to use?"

Qrow winced and his expression lightened up. "I didn't mean that. Look, you're only fifteen years old. You're too young to drink, and you're way too young to drink half a bottle of whiskey in one sitting."

"Well, if you wanted me to stop drinking, " Ruby's eyes picked up a mischievous look, "You should hide your booze better."

Qrow rolled his eyes. "I swear, you're gonna be the death of me."

"If you're finished, I'm gonna go back to sleep. My head's buzzing like crazy."

"Heh. I remember when I got hangovers."

"How do you avoid them now? You're drunk more often than sober."

"If you never go sober, you never get a hangover. And if you take that advice, you'll end up grounded until Winter finishes freezing hell over."

"Who's Winter?"

"One of the reasons I was hiding that whiskey."

Ruby laughed, winced as the action made her head spin, and crawled back onto the couch. Closing her eyes, she groaned and tried to fall asleep.

"Hey, kid."

"What?"

"You've been doing really good at Signal. Like, years ahead of the rest of your class good. Play your cards right, and I might be able to convince Ozpin to accept you into Beacon ahead of schedule."

Ruby picked her head up from the coach, looked up at Qrow, pinched her arm hard, and looked again. "For real? You'd do that? Even though I'm only 15?"

Qrow grinned when he saw Ruby's expression. _Hook, line, and sinker_. "First, though, I want to make sure you won't get kicked out the moment you get there. If you're drunk every other day, you won't last long."

Ruby groaned when she realized what he'd done. "Dammit, Qrow, you got me. I'll stop drinking, " she lowered her voice so that Qrow couldn't hear it, "at least until initiation, anyways."

"What was that?"

"Shut up and let me sleep."

The dull sound of buckshot bouncing off of steel rang out into the forest. Yang frowned as Raven lunged forward, drawing her sword and deflecting each individual pellet.

"That's a neat trick." Yang ducked as the sword eviscerated the air directly above her head. "Even with my aura, that attack would've killed me if I hadn't dodged." She retaliated with dual strikes from Ember Celica, the second attack blowing herself backwards to avoid Raven's counterattack.

Raven's mask covered her sneer. "If you hadn't managed to dodge, you wouldn't have deserved to survive it."

Yang and Raven circled each other slowly. Yang casually fired a few rounds of buckshot at her mother, each round deflected with equal indifference. Each studied the other's movements carefully.

"Your form is sloppy. Have twelve years of training taught you nothing? Perhaps I should have left you with your father."

Yang's eyes flashed red and she lunged at Raven, screaming ,"They've taught me enough to know how much of a bitch you are!". Raven just shook her head and cartwheeled backwards.

"Don't be so aggressive. Any half-decent opponent could have killed you a dozen times over. Really, it's pathet-" Raven was cut off by Ember Celica smashing into her stomach.

Yang grinned and jumped over the horizontal slash, denying Raven her revenge. "Guess that makes you less than half-decent."

Raven's eyes narrowed and her face hardened. "Brat, you are about to learn where you get your temper from."

She stabbed her sword into the ground, the blade sinking with the crunch of shattered

rocks, and lunged at Yang. The pair's fists cracked against each other a dozen times, before Raven high-kicked Yang's jaw twenty feet in the air. Yang groaned but managed to right herself, grabbing and spinning herself about a tree branch. She landed on another tree, and opened up on Raven with explosive dust rounds. Raven rolled her eyes, dodging each bolt with exaggerated grace. Yang jumped down and punched the trunk as hard as she could, dislodging the roots and sending the entire tree plummeting towards Raven. The black-haired warrior rolled her eyes again and ducked to the side, but blinked when her daughter wasn't behind the tree as expected.

Yang ran up the tree as it fell towards her mother, jumping over Raven's line of sight. The blonde's eyes flashed red and she slammed her fist into her mother's skull as hard as she possibly could. Raven went flying, slamming into and uprooting several trees along the way. Yang didn't lower her guard, as she could tell from the impact that her mother's aura was still going strong. Her caution proved well-advised when Raven flew back into the clearing with a murderous look in her eye.

"You know, if I wasn't so pissed off right now, I'd almost be proud," she seethed as she pulled her sword from the ground. The red running across the blade flickered in the sunlight as she pulled it up, changing from blood-red to hellfire. Raven's eyes locked onto Yang's as she sliced her sword through the air and created a portal, which she quickly jumped through.

 _Crap crap cra-_ Yang though as she turned around, forced to clap her two gauntleted hands together to catch Raven's blade, before it sliced Yang in half down her middle. She quickly ducked out of the way of the sword, not even having time to look at the blistered mess her hands had no doubt become. If it wasn't for her aura and her gloves, it was unlikely Yang would still have hands. The portal opened again and Yang turned around once more, only to get a sword hilt to the back of her head as Raven emerged where Yang had been looking earlier. Her vision swam, but she could feel her mother grab her around her chest and put the blade of her sword against her neck.

"Don't expect me to do the same thing twice, especially if it fails the first time. Stupid mistakes like that lead to death." Raven released Yang and removed her mask. Yang thought she saw the ghost of a smile on her mother's face, but it was quickly exorcised.

"If I was an idiot I'd almost think you cared." Yang grinned slightly, concealing her disappointment over her loss.

"I'd hate for all the work I've been putting into you to be thrown away because of your stupidity. You take after your father too much."

"Should I be offended or proud?"

"If you knew your father, you'd know the answer."

"Care to enlighten me?"

"He doesn't matter anymore. You are the daughter of the Tribe."

Yang's face hardened and Raven knew she'd struck a nerve. Still, it was hardly in her nature to be subtle or sensitive.

"I'd be able to put the Tribe first even if you told me who he was. Why can't I meet him, even once?"

Raven sighed. Yang's persistence annoyed her, and it created a rather uncomfortable problem. If Raven were to tell Yang the truth, she'd likely blame herself for what became of her father and become weaker in combat as a result; however, if she found out on her own, Raven would risk losing Yang's trust, and more importantly her support. _I could always lie to her...but if she found out, that would piss her off even more._

The stalemate was broken by a voice from across the clearing. "Hey ladies, hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Vireo… now is not the time." Yang said in a warning tone.

"Look, this is actually pretty serious. I've got the reports from that Atlas convoy raid, and it didn't go as well as you hoped it would, Raven."

Raven frowned and gestured for him to go on. Yang growled and walked back to the Tribe's camp, punching a few trees along the way. She had been pestering her mother for answers for weeks now, and if she wasn't going to get anywhere by asking...then she'd have to resort to other means. She entered the camp, and rather than head to her tent, she looked back over her shoulder and popped into her mother's tent. Tearing the room apart, she found exactly what she was looking for: her mother's scroll. Opening it up, she looked at the last people Raven had contacted.

Qrow, Vireo… who was Ozpin? Yang clicked on the strange name and read some of the conversation. It looked like they were arguing about her—whether or not she should go to a place called Beacon. Why was this Ozpin so interested in her?

Yang grinned and she took out her own scroll, checking the map for how close Beacon was. It was only about a week's journey on foot; factor in Yang's speed, and the travel time got cut down to a few days. This "Beacon Academy" would soon have an unexpected applicant.

Yang just hoped that her fellow students wouldn't slow her down too much.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sheesh, it's been a while. Honestly, I forgot about this for a while, but then some of the Volume 5 soundtrack popped up in my Youtube feed, and eventually I ended up listening to Red Like Roses Part II. Speaking of Volume 5, it gave us a lot more info on Raven, which I didn't have when first planning this story. There might be some inconsistencies because of that. Oh, and I ended up changing the rating from T to M… but I'm sure you'll figure out why in a few minutes. Anyways, without further ado, here's the long-overdue next chapter of Halcyon Theft!**

* * *

The sound of a loud engine revving past cars and buses cut through the night as a black-and-yellow motorcycle raced through Vale's highways. Yang's three-or-four-day travel time ended up being sliced in half, mostly due to the car dealership she'd passed while en route to Vale. _Really, if those fools didn't want me to take the bike, they shouldn't have left the keys in the damn ignition_ , Yang thought, weaving through traffic as though she'd had the bike for a few years rather than a few days. The cars next to her gradually started slowing down as they exited the freeway and hit an intersection, and Yang stared at the strange phenomena with confusion. Returning her gaze in front of her, she grinned slightly when she saw the oncoming traffic whizzing across the perpendicular road.

"Time to see what this baby can do!" She yelled, as her motorcycle roared and sped up dramatically. Turning the bike on its side, she slid under a truck and quickly righted herself by kicking the ground, sitting back in her seat to stabilize her position. Ignoring the swerving cars behind her, she sped into the heart of the city, finding a small parking garage to store her freshly-scratched bike. Leaving the bike behind, she walked further into the heart of the city, looking for a bar or tavern.

"Hmm...Junior's bar looks interesting. And if those guards outside aren't organized crime, I don't know what is," Yang muttered to herself as she strolled in through the doors, ignoring the long line and pushing the bouncer out of her way. The large man tried to grab her arm, but she grinned at him and spun his arm around, spraining and bruising it in the process.

"Just consider me a VIP, pal." She laughed and strolled into the bar, sitting at a booth. "I'll have some beer," she said to the bartender.

"Miss, a lady like yourself shouldn't be having any beer. How about something like a Cosmopolitan, or a Strawberry Sunrise instead?" The blissfully ignorant man replied.

"Oh, a lady? You're too kind, sir! I'll take one of those Sunrise things, if you don't mind." Yang laughed to herself, finding the chivalry amusing. Of course, she still resolved to punch his stupid teeth in, once she finished her drink.

"Coming right up! Here you go!" The bartender slid a drink over to Yang, and did a double take when he realized how quickly she chugged it.

"Another, I beg of you, oh kind sir!"

"O-of course! Here you are!" The man slid over another, and another, and another.

Yang was six or seven drinks in when she finally stopped. _What would Mom say_ , she wondered, _if she realized I was drinking this much?_ Most likely, nothing good. No doubt there'd be a long-winded rant about how alcohol impairs combat prowess. _Well, fuck Raven. Half her advice was shit anyways._ Tightly gripping the bar with both hands, Yang made a futile attempt to stabilize herself as she stood up.

"Miss? You still have to pay for this." The bartender tried to grab Yang's shoulder to stop her from leaving, nearly knocking her over in the process. Although he missed her shoulder, he did succeed in grabbing a few strands of hair—which were pulled out by Yang's inebriated dodge.

Yang stopped in her tracks. Holding onto a chair, she turned around to face the bartender. Her eyes were crimson, her face livid, and her tone deadly serious.

"Did you just touch...my hair?"

The bartender held the stare for a second or two, and broke eye contact, wiping sweat off of his forehead with his sleeve. To his credit, however, he withstood Yang's furious expression and held his ground.

"L-like I said, miss. You have to—" A few fillings flew out of the man's mouth as Yang slugged him across his face, sending him flying back into the liquor shelves and spilling alcohol everywhere. The vapor filled the air with the scent of cheap booze for a split second—after making contact with Yang's fiery hair, however, the entire bar exploded in flames. Yang walked towards the collapsed bartender, kicking her way through the bar table. With a grunt, she hoisted the man over her shoulder, stumbling out of the bar and past the incredulous bouncer. She stumbled and fell, not quite making it to the sidewalk, but after dropping the bartender like a load of bricks, she was able to make it back to her motorcycle. Not even bothering to look over her shoulder to see the bar burning, she fumbled with her jacket in an attempt to find her keys, slumping herself over her bike.

"I should probably get out of here," Yang mumbled to herself, hiccuping every few words. She clumsily stuck the key in the ignition and twisted it twice before realizing she was turning it the wrong way. After a minute or two of drunken trial and error, she was able to get the motorcycle running, and sped off into the night...drunken reflexes causing near-collisions left and right.

* * *

Ruby timidly pushed open the doors of the Dust store and walked in, cursing her social ineptitude when she failed to return the storekeeper's greeting. Pulling her headphones over her ears, she took a moment to gaze at the bright colors that lined the walls.

 _Fire, Ice, Lightning….and...there it is!_ Ruby hurried over to the end of the wall, where purple vials and crystals lined the walls. Gravity Dust was by far her favorite variety, and essential for her fighting style. The recoil from regular bullets would never be enough to move a 50 kilogram scythe, after all. She'd been experimenting with using crystals in her bullets rather than the powder she normally used. Her eyes scanned the crystals until they hovered over a particularly bright one. _High quality, and it looks like it'll fracture into reasonably-sized pieces._ She reached to pick it up, and walked over to the register to pay.

En route, a magazine happened to catch her eye. Guns and dust ammo covered the entire front page, but Ruby's eyes singled out one sniper rifle in particular. It was the rifle that Crescent Rose was based off of, and a quick glance at the bottom of the magazine confirmed that there was an exclusive interview with the lead engineer behind it. Ruby's mouth dropped open, and she grabbed the magazine and immediately started reading it.

She was about ten pages in when someone tapped her on the shoulder. Naturally, she elected to ignore them, but the tapping soon turned into shaking. Ruby pulled her headphones off and turned around with an annoyed expression. The gun pointed at her face didn't improve her mood.

"I said, put your hands in the-"

Ruby ignored his speech and pulled out Crescent Rose, shooting the man's chest and sending him flying out the window. The other goons looked from Ruby, to the broken window, and then to each other in confusion—with one exception.

"You know, if someone shoots one of your pals," the strangely-dressed man said, spinning his cane in one hand and face-palming with the other, "it's only common courtesy to shoot them back!"

The goons snapped into action, some taking out their guns and shooting at Ruby, while others charged at her, crimson blades in hand. Ruby, for her part, just yawned while spinning Crescent Rose in a circle, deflecting all of the bullets around the shop. Some of the robbers stopped in place, unnerved by Ruby's display. After a few seconds, the shooters ran out of bullets.

"Rude. And you are?" Ruby shook her head in a mock display of disappointment.

The man took off his hat and flourished his cane."Roman Torchwick, at your service. Now how about you enter my service, and help that old cashier fill up this briefcase?"

Not even gracing Torchwick with a reply, Ruby pointed the head of Crescent Rose backwards, grinned, and pulled the trigger, launching herself through the shop and knocking over shelves left and right. Bringing herself to a stop by hooking around one gunman and into another, she brought the scythe around in a loop, eviscerating the three ranged goons who were unfortunate enough to be near her. Torchwick blinked, grabbed the half-filled bag of Dust sitting on the counter, and slowly started edging out of the building. Ruby fired three shots in quick succession, killing the three goons who'd tried to attack her in melee, and turned around just in time to see the edge of Torchwick's coat vanish from sight as he fled the building.

Ruby paused, eyed one of the broken displays, and pocketed a few Dust crystals, much to the owner's dismay.

"I have a feeling this'll come in handy," Ruby said, using her Semblance to dash out of the store and follow Torchwick.

The criminal was climbing up a ladder on a building almost directly in front of the storefront. Ruby shook her head in disappointment.

"Honestly, this is supposed to be Vale's most wanted criminal?"

Crescent Rose rang out three times, propelling Ruby up the building just as Torchwick stepped off of the ladder. Ruby grabbed onto the edge, and started to clamber up, but stopped at the sight of a cane pointed right at her face.

"Little Red, I think it's past your bedtime. Now be polite and say goodni-" Torchwick's banter was cut off rather abruptly when Ruby leapt up and back from the ledge, backflipping over the open air and driving the blade of Crescent Rose down onto his head. The thief's aura managed to hold, but just barely.

"Whoa, someone's a little aggressive. Who are you, anyways?" Torchwick looked slightly unnerved, if only because Ruby had broken villain monologue etiquette.

"Oh, just a certain crow's niece." Ruby spun Crescent Rose in a circle, reloading and chambering the next bullet.

"Well, your uncle must be a hell of a crow."

"He's a hell of a _something_ , all right."

Roman rolled his eyes and twirled his cane.

"Unreliable, huh? Trust me, " he said, suddenly yelling into the air, "I can understand the feeling!"

Ruby narrowed her eyes, suddenly noticing the faint sound of an engine in the distance.

"Waiting for your ride?"

"Little red, little red, If you keep up this behavior, I'll have to tell your parents." Torchwick scolded.

"..." Ruby stood dead still and tilted her head down just far enough to obscure her expression from Torchwick.

"Antisocial, now, are w-"

For a second time, the thief was interrupted by a massive scythe. This time, however, there was no witty retort, only blank, deep, silver eyes staring into his. Without breaking eye contact, Ruby unleashed a flurry of blows with Crescent Rose, driving Roman back with each strike.

"Damn kid!"

Ruby grabbed his mouth with one hand and sent him flying into the air. Swinging her scythe's blade about a nearby pole, she launched herself after him, cutting clean through his cane and narrowly missing his chest. Torchwick and Ruby landed on buildings across the street from each other. The broken pieces of Melodic Cudgel dropped from his limp hands, as he gazed into Ruby's eyes. Ruby stared back with a blank expression, but quickly broke eye contact, turning her head to witness a blonde woman hover onto the rooftop. The two pieces of Torchwick's cane suddenly glowed with a blue light and ascended, settling into lazy orbits around around the rooftop.

"Torchwick, stand down and surrender yourself immediately!"

The thief, to his credit, simply rolled his eyes dramatically, though Glynda soon knocked the smirk off of his face with the remnants of his cane. Torchwick dove back and pulled a Dust crystal out of his jacket, grimacing at the thought of engaging two Huntresses without his weapon. Just as the both sides seemed ready to take action, however, the confrontation was broken by the sound of a Bullhead engine. Roman put the Dust back in his jacket and grinned at Ruby as the aircraft descended behind him.

"Well, Red, I'd say it's been fun, but it hasn't!" Roman turned around and leapt into the Bullhead.

Or rather, he tried to. Ruby threw the Dust crystals she'd taken from the store, and shot each with perfect aim. Every crystal imploded, temporarily creating their own gravity fields— and pulling the screaming thief away from his escape.

Glynda started running in the direction of Torchwick, who was already starting to glow from the woman's Semblance. "Excellent job, Ruby. Now stand down and let me handle him from here."

If Ruby could even hear Glynda, she showed no sign of it. Crescent Rose echoed a metallic scream as Ruby shifted it into its scythe form.

Glynda's expression darkened. "What are you doing? I told you to stand down!"

Ignoring Glynda a second time, Ruby sprinted to the edge of the building. Jumping off and trailing petals all the way, she fired Crescent Rose over and over again, not stopping even when she heard the clicking of an empty magazine. Torchwick, still spinning end over end in the gravity vortex, stared down Ruby with widened eyes. In the final moment, Torchwick closed his eyes with a deep sigh. _Lying, cheating, stealing...surviving. What a joke._

"RUBY ROSE! I SAID STAND DOWN!"

Ruby's eyes seemed to glow at the sound of Glynda's voice, becoming deep pits of cold quicksilver. Crescent Rose closed the last of the distance, shattered Torchwick's aura easily, and, with a sickening tear, sheared clean through his chest.

The pieces of his body floated in the air for a few more seconds before the gravity fields finally collapsed, dropping them three stories before they hit the ground with a thunk. Ruby stared at the corpse with a blank expression, absentmindedly scraping her scythe against a wooden sign to clean some of the blood and gore from the blade.

"I have no parents for you to call," she softly whispered.

In the distance, she could faintly hear the Bullhead retreat at full speed. People on the sidewalks looked at Torchwick, then at Ruby, whispering amongst themselves. If there was a single silver lining for Ruby, it was that she didn't even register the horror of the crowd, her mind too preoccupied to notice.

"Do you have any idea what you've done?" Glynda Goodwitch was stern even at the best times, but now she'd be better described as downright hostile. Ruby shook her head briefly, blinked a few times, and winced at the sight of Torchwick's body. Glynda scowled and turned to address the crowd.

"Everyone, return to your homes. The situation has been resolved."

Even a large mob of people had trouble disobeying the disciplinarian, and surely enough, within seconds, people had begun to disperse. Once the last of the crowd had left, Glinda turned back to Ruby.

"There will be serious consequences for this, Ruby. You are aware of this, yes?"

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Don't you have detentions to be handing out or something?"

Glynda scowled and put her hands at her hips. "Applicants to the most prestigious Huntsman training academy in all of Vale should show more respect, lest they be skipped over."

Ruby rolled her eyes, and turned around, as if to walk away. Glynda waved her hand, and Ruby launched up, dropped down, and finally—with a slow spin and crossed arms— hovered in place a few feet away from Glynda.

"Exactly where do you think you're going? A man is dead! At your hand!"

"I've never been one for paperwork. You, on the other hand..."

"This is a serious matter! Even Qrow wouldn't behave like this after doing that!"

"My uncle also wouldn't go five seconds without a shot of whiskey. You want me to 'behave' like that?"

Glynda's eyes narrowed and, without responding, marched over in the direction of the nearest police department. Ruby was dragged along by Glynda's semblance, sullen expression and all. When they finally reached the police station, an escort met with Glynda, and opened an interrogation room. Ruby was unceremoniously sent flying inside, and the door closed behind her with a loud clang. With a sigh, Ruby jumped to her feet and somersaulted into a nearby chair.

She'd been sitting at the table for a half an hour or so before the door slammed open. Qrow stormed in, followed by a much calmer Ozpin. Ozpin closed the door behind him with a soft click.

"Ruby! What the hell was that?" Qrow slammed his hands down on the table, the blow echoing

"Now, now, Qrow, I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation for young Ruby's actions. Isn't there, miss Rose?"

Qrow winced as Ruby's eyes went stone cold.

"Don't say R—" Ruby interrupted herself mid-sentence, looking down briefly before tilting her head back up with a slightly less severe look in her eyes. "Don't say that name."

Ozpin nodded solemnly. "I'll take care to avoid that. Now, back onto the subject at hand..."

"Torchwick attacked a dust shop I was in. I attacked back. Simple as that."

"Glynda would disagree. According to her, you disobeyed direct instructions to stand down, resulting in the death of an unarmed opponent."

Ruby shrugged, buying a second to think up an excuse. Fortunately, one slipped into her mind almost immediately.

"Unarmed, but still dangerous. He was the most wanted criminal in Vale, not some street thug. I wasn't going to risk my neck just to save Glynda some paperwork."

"So you admit to willfully disobeying instructions?"

"I'll 'willfully disobey' anyone who tries to send me to my death for stupid reasons."

Ozpin stared into Ruby's eyes for just a second longer than was comfortable. He sighed and nodded to the still-furious Qrow.

"Ruby, while I hesitate to commend your actions, I can understand getting caught in the heat of the moment and disobeying an order. Your decisiveness, at the very least, proves you capable of making a fine Huntress."

"Thank you, si—"

Ozpin's voice became more stern. "However. You'd do well to remember that capability and worthiness are two wholly separate qualities. You should take care to ensure you don't become worse than the man you just killed." Without another word, the headmaster pushed himself up from his seat, and left the room. Qrow shook his head slowly at Ruby.

"You came real damn close to getting barred from Beacon over that stunt. With what Glynda said, I had to fight Oz to even get a chance to hear you out."

"That's a lie and you know it. You yourself always say that Ozpin never changes his mind."

"And what does that change? You're not getting the damn point, Ruby!"

Ruby shook her head. "I only defended myself!"

"Really? You sure about that? You sure he didn't say something to piss you off, maybe something about Summer? Something about Taiya-"

"Don't." Ruby's face revealed little, but her eyes deepened with an intensity unmatched by even the darkest of iron.

Qrow sighed, the first to break eye contact. He took a deep swig of whiskey, and brought his hand to Ruby's shoulder. He spoke softly at first, but gradually raised his voice.

"You've had a tough life, kid. I get it. But if you want to be a huntress, you won't be able to go berserk every time someone mentions your damn parents!"

Ruby refused to respond, continuing to fix him with the same baleful stare. Qrow shook his head, and stood up from his seat.

"Anyways, we can go whenever. Ozpin said he'd handle the paperwork, so there's no need to wait for an official release or anything."

Ruby stood up, and marched off with sunken shoulders. Qrow followed closely behind, with an awkward gait suggesting that, as usual, he was uncertain of how to help her.

* * *

 **RIP Torchwick. Your witty dialogue was too funny for this world.**

 **On a different note, I'm planning on updating this more often, hopefully once a week or so. I might experiment a bit with chapter length, as my chapters are currently quite short...but with longer chapters comes larger delays between chapters. PM me or write a review if you have a preference. I'll probably succumb to peer pressure. Hell, if enough people ask me, maybe I'll replot the entire story and make Mecha-Roman the final villain. Maybe Ruby'll have all her psychological issues cured by the power of friendship and cookies or something. Maybe.**

 **...I wouldn't hold my breath, though.**


End file.
